


So We Return To Zero

by Ambyrfire, CountLestannaoftheVersEmpire



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Additional tags will be added as story progresses, Babies, Child AU, Fluff and Angst, Gen, and we mean lots and lots of it, father and son relationships aayyy, fic collaboration, future fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:06:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambyrfire/pseuds/Ambyrfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountLestannaoftheVersEmpire/pseuds/CountLestannaoftheVersEmpire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though actually, if you were a baby, I believe you would be much easier to take care of</p><p>Be careful what you wish for~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Square One

“The council has my gratitude for granting me such a responsibility, but I cannot accept.”

 

“You do not have the freedom to refuse, Kaizuka.”

 

“I am unqualified”–

 

“The UFE council is not concerned with your qualifications. As of this moment, you are the lone individual capable of taking this job. Any other option would be an inexcusable security breach.”

 

Inaho’s jaw clenched. “The burdens upon my time and energy, along with the risk this poses to Troyard’s health and safety”–

 

“What do you think you’re being paid for?” The representative sneered. “As for your other concern– we judge you to pose no threat to… Troyard.”

 

“I can not take care of”–

 

“You can if we say you can. That is the end of this discussion.” The sound of a stamp slamming down on the paperwork echoed through the room. “As of today, you are charged with custody, care, guardianship, and surveillance of the infant formerly known as Slaine Saazbaum Troyard.”

 

_ One Week Earlier _

Troyard’s fingers were bleached bone-white by the overhead light as he reached listlessly for a chess piece. When he touched one, his hand fumbled, and instead of picking it up he knocked it over, scattering the pieces around it in a hollow clatter. 

 

Inaho watched him slump back in his chair and make no effort to reach for the pieces again. Inaho stretched over and began setting the pieces right again, aware of Troyard’s dull gaze on him every second. 

 

“If you ate properly, your body would be stronger.”

 

“Why would I need strength, here?” Troyard hissed.

 

“To sustain your body and improve your general physical and emotional health”–

 

“I don’t need to eat much. I never do anything here. Why waste food?”

 

“Eating is not a waste”–

 

“When it’s more than you need, it is,” Slaine said, crossing his arms and effectively shutting down a potential lecture on how eating is not a waste from Inaho.

 

Inaho sighed. “Your petulant, childish behavior does you no good.” He paused. “Though actually, if you were a baby, I believe you would be much easier to take care of.” 

 

Slaine snorted disdainfully. “You don’t know much about child care, do you?” He shifted in his seat, discomfort spreading across his face. “What happened to the temperature? Why is it so hot in here all of a sudden?”

 

“Perhaps you’re running a fever.” Inaho supplied helpfully.  

 

“I didn’t ask for your opinion”– Slaine began, then stopped abruptly with a strange, strangled sound.He was growing paler by the second– no, Troyard wasn’t merely pale; he was glowing. He leapt to his feet– or tried, but instead staggered backwards, tumbling over his chair onto the floor. 

 

The very next second,  the blinding light forced his eye closed. It was brilliant, burning, and… strangely familiar. He knew that light. He had seen it before– seen it when Seylum became Asseylum.

 

He slowly opened his eye sensing that the light had receded. There was the sound of crying coming from the floor. A child’s cry, or… a baby’s? He looked around, assessing the room. Troyard was nowhere to be found. 

  
Inaho walked around the table as though in a daze, putting one foot in front of the other mechanically, moving towards the sound. Where Troyard had been, there was a shivering, naked baby with ashen hair, lying half-buried in empty prison scrubs, crying its lungs out on the floor.


	2. Second Stage

The hallways were as stark white as the rest of the hospital– with the exception that here, an attempt had been made at lightening the atmosphere by placing bright posters of cartoon animals at intervals along the walls. 

 

Inaho was not of the opinion that this actually helped.

 

“Right this way, sir! Just follow me!” Chirped the nurse, beckoning over her shoulder. Inaho followed, deliberately ignoring the cheerful artwork. 

 

As soon as the door closed, the nurse turned on her heel, dropping all pretense of perkiness. “Hand,” she snapped, and pressed his fingers to the scanner.

 

There was a beep, and a computerized voice read out, “Kaizuka. Inaho. Identified. Access granted.”

 

The nurse sniffed, and pushed the door open, walking in before Inaho with brisk small steps. A lone cot that stood in the room where Slaine Troyard laid, wrapped in a light blue blanket. Yet… it was difficult to reconcile the picture of Slaine Troyard– the man he had fought, relentlessly, for years– with this small, rather squishy-looking baby. 

 

As though sensing his presence, said baby opened his eyes slowly. Well, Inaho couldn’t deny it now, not anymore. This baby had the same teal eyes after all. Eyes that reminded him of turquoise crystals. 

 

Then, the baby’s lips began wobbling. Inaho stepped back a little, bracing himself for something bad. The wailing started, and Inaho stood there,stock still, feeling uncharacteristically useless.

 

“Go on, what are you waiting for? Stop it from crying!” The nurse snapped, prodding him on the arm.

 

He took a reluctant step forward.The baby’s cries were jarring, unsettling. How was one supposed to go about picking up a baby?

 

Slightly confused, he reached out and placed his right hand gently below his neck.  _ Support the head _ , he told himself as he awkwardly maneuvered the swaddled bundle off the table.  _ Rock, don’t bounce. Hold tightly, but don’t be tense _ .

 

Inaho nearly wilted with relief as the volume of the baby’s cries dropped. The little body felt oddly light in his arms. And the eyes… bright. Clear. Innocent. Unclouded by the sorrows of war. There was no hate, no rage, no sorrow or pain in these eyes. This wasn’t the Slaine he knew, and had fought countless battles with.

 

“So now you’re going to stare at it all day? This is a hospital, there are other patients that need my attention.”

 

The voice snapped Inaho out of his reverie. The nurse was holding out a bag, and shook it slightly when he looked up. 

 

“This should be the basics of what you need right now– there are other things, of course, but you’re capable enough to be given this assignment, you’ll figure it out.” The nurse snatched up a clipboard and flipped impatiently through the papers containing information on Slaine Saazbaum Troyard’s discharge and new identity. 

 

“Sign here,here and here. Any info and documents you need for him are in the bag. Once you’re done you may leave with him.” 

 

He took the pen from the nurse and shakily signed where his signature was needed with his free right hand as quickly as possible, all while balancing Slaine on his left hand. Said baby was now gurgling and trying to roll over to his side to see what was happening.

 

Handing the pen back to the nurse, he sighed in relief as he carried Slaine with both hands once more– until he remembered he had to take the heavy looking bag that lay on the floor beside him. Having lost interest in his surroundings, Slaine merely yawned and closed his eyes, falling asleep instantly.

 

The nurse gave an annoyed sigh as she bent down into the bag and handed him… a cloth of some sort? He stared at it blankly even more confused. The nurse let out a  _ tch _ and spoke. 

 

“Goodness you’re hopeless. It’s a baby sling. Put him down for a while, wear it and then place him in it. Hurry up already!” 

 

She gave another exasperated sigh, placed the sling on the cot, took Slaine away from Inaho’s hands and tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. “I have other important things to do with my precious time, poster boy.”

 

Inaho picked up the sling and inspected it, bringing it up to the light to figure out how to wear it.  Weathering the nurse’s impatience, he put it on as quickly as possible. As soon as it was on, Slaine was plopped unceremoniously into the sling. 

 

Honestly, he was surprised Slaine had slept through it all and was now drooling in his sleep. Quickly, he picked up the heavy bag and exited the room and out, towards the hospital corridor. Before he could turn around and ask if there was anything else he needed to know, the nurse was gone. 

 

With his current incompetence at handling a baby, Inaho decided that it would be in his benefit to call his sister for help. Afraid Slaine would drop any moment, he brought his right arm around the sling, supporting Slaine by the crook of his arm, and placed the bag full of basic baby supplies down. 

 

Maneuvering carefully around the baby sling, he took out his phone and dialed. 

 

“Yuki-nee I have a baby.” 

 

_ “You what?” _

 

“I have a baby”

 

_ “But you’re a guy!” _

 

“I adopted one”

 

_ “Oh _ .” She sounded rather too relieved, in Inaho’s opinion. “ _ Wait, you adopted a baby? Why?” _

 

“I… felt like it.” Maybe she wouldn’t spot the lie–

 

“ _ Nao! That isn’t an answer! _ ”

 

Oh well. “Yes it is. I answered your question.”

 

“ _ Nao! Now is not the time! Why do you have a baby? And why are you calling me? _ ”

 

“I need your help.”

 

_ “With the baby you just somehow acquired and won’t tell me about?” _

 

“Yes.”

 

A sigh crackled through the phone speaker. “ _ Sometimes I wonder if you think at all before you do things! I still want an explanation later! But fine. What do you want?” _

 

“A ride would be useful.”

 

_ “A… ride. Nao. Where are you?” _

 

He listed off the address of the hospital.

 

_ “You’re outside of a hospital?!” _

 

“Yes, I believe I already mentioned that, Yuki nee.”

 

_ “Naaooo…..fine. I’ll be there in...15 minutes.” _

 

“Thank you Yuki nee.”

 

He somehow managed to hang up without dropping either the phone or the baby. Slaine was still asleep, miraculously. Strange, to think that this was only the second time he had ever held… Slaine? Thinking of this baby with  _ that _ name felt wrong. 

 

This whole situation was wrong. Less than two weeks ago, Slaine Troyard had been sitting across the table from him, slumped and listless but  _ there _ and  _ real  _ and… alive. 

 

Yet, Troyard was alive still. Here in his arms, sleeping. Inaho stared down at the child until his eye began to ache. 

 

Was this “alive?”

 

If there even was an answer, it wouldn’t be found here. Not now. Maybe not ever. 

 

Therefore, Inaho would not trouble himself with it. The question was filed away with every other uncertainty he had faced. Uncertainty could not assist action, and action was what was needed.

 

This baby may be Troyard. This baby may be someone else entirely. Either way, it was irrelevant; this was a human being, vulnerable and dependent on him for its survival.

 

–––

 

Yuki pulled up to the curb and shifted the car into park, trying not to stare too obviously. Where on earth had Inaho gotten all this… stuff?

 

Okay, forget that. Where had he gotten a  _ baby? _ She bit back a sigh. He had been acting strangely recently.. .but no, no he never seemed to have had a liking for women. Unless… Inaho was much better at hiding things than she had thought?

 

If Inaho hadn’t been standing  _ right there _ she might have slammed her forehead against the wheel. Why did he do these things? Sighing, she unlocked the car’s doors and motioned to her brother to open the door and get inside. But wait...she didn’t have any baby seats or anything to guarantee the safety of the baby. What, exactly, was her brother thinking?

 

If she asked he wasn’t going to answer, she knew that. Yuki sighed.  _ Might as well just go help him, then. If he wants to explain, he will. _

 

“Hey there! Let me take that–” Yuki lifted a bag from Inaho’s arms (oof this thing was heavy!) into the back seat, watching him from the corner of her eye. He was managing to hold the baby and remaining items fairly well. Maybe she should have expected that, knowing him. 

 

Maybe she should have expected something as wild as materializing a baby out of thin air one morning, knowing him…

 

She shook her head slightly. She needed to focus on the task at hand now. Questions later. 

 

“So, um– how’s the baby?”

 

Inaho glanced up, blinking at her. “He’s sleeping.”

 

“Oh.” She tried to lower her voice. “Sorry.” 

 

_ He. The baby is a boy? Ok then, I know  _ **_something_ ** _ about this kid, at least _ .

 

Looking back at him, she noticed something off with his expression. 

 

“Is something wrong Nao?”

 

“No.”

 

He didn’t look at her when he said it. Yuki bit her lip. “ Just tell me Nao...I know that face.”

 

“His diaper leaked.” 

 

–––––––

 

The rest of the ride home was as uneventful as could be hoped. The damp spot was… uncomfortable, but Inaho was willing to accept the consequences of holding a (very young) baby in his arms.

 

Yuki glanced his way at every red light, quite obviously wanting an explanation but not saying anything more. Yet.

 

It was perhaps a miracle that they had arrived unscathed. This method of transporting a baby was extremely risky. On such short notice, however, there was not another option. 

 

Yuki stormed– very quietly– around the house, muttering about how they weren’t ready for this, how Inaho hadn’t even found a partner yet, and how they did not have enough space for the baby (that was factually incorrect, they did, and Inaho said so, though Yuki seemed to ignore him). 

 

Yuki was interrupted rather jarringly by Slaine waking up with a wail. Inaho stared down at the baby, feeling strangely helpless. Was he hungry? Cold? Frightened?

 

Inaho could see Yuki watching him, lips quirking, as he began to flail around the living room in search of a place to put Slaine down so he could change his diapers as soon as possible. 

 

“Here, Nao,” she sighed, pretending to be exasperated even though her lips still twitched, beckoning him over. “Give him to me.” 

 

Inaho surrendered the baby, feeling a flicker of peculiar reluctance in his chest as he let go. Yuki held the baby with a confidence that spoke of experience. She laid a blanket down, procured diapers from somewhere in the small mountain of baby supplies, and set the sniffling baby down. 

 

“It’s okay, don’t worry, we’ll get you changed in a jiffy, won’t we? Won’t we?” Yuki kept up the stream of cheerful baby talk, and Slaine stared up at her with wide blue eyes. “There, all done, see?” Yuki patted his cheeks, and he burbled at her.

 

“You’re very good at this, Yuki,” Inaho observed as she lifted the baby back into her arms. 

 

She laughed. “I would hope so! I had to do all this for you for a couple of years. The orphanage staff were supposed to, really, but they preferred to just show me how and let me do it. Overcrowding, you know…” Her expression shifted for a moment, taking on a heavy cast. Then, she shook her head and smiled. “But that doesn’t matter now, does it! We have a little man to take care of, isn’t that right?” She fluttered her fingers at Slaine, beaming as his round little hands reached for them. He slowly wrapped his small chubby fingers around Yuki’s finger and gurgled happily, all while pulling at it.

 

“Aww aren’t you adorable, such a happy little one.” Yuki continued cooing as Slaine looked at her with wide eyes and wiggled around happily. His grip on Yuki quite strong for one so little. Inaho stood at the side, his heart melting into a puddle at how overwhelmingly sweet the scene before him was. Watching as Slaine let go of his sister’s finger and began clapping while giggling as Yuki began playing ‘peek-a-boo!’ with him. 

 

Looking over at Inaho, she asked, “What’s his name?” 

 

Inaho blinked. His name… couldn’t give Yuki the truth, she wouldn’t understand, wouldn’t be able to handle it well… Slaine… Surein…

 

“…Soren” 

 

“Oooo a cute little name for a very cute little one, Soren!”, Yuki immediately turned back to Slaine leaving Inaho feeling somewhat left out in this sudden bonding session the two were having. Slaine began trying to grab at Yuki’s fingers again, but this time quite obviously to Inaho trying to suck on them. 

 

_ He must be hungry... _

 

“Yuki nee , I think it’s time for his lunch. I’ll go and prepare the milk while I leave you two for a while.” 

 

“Okay!” She waved at him brightly, and then returned her attention to the wriggly child in her arms.

 

Inaho reached into the bag and took out the huge tin full of powdered milk formula and a milk bottle. Looking up on how to prepare milk for infants on his tablet, he systematically prepared everything perfectly. Now this was one thing he knew how to do and felt right at home doing.

 

Actually feeding a baby, however, would be an issue. Shaking the bottle with warm milk, he walked back into the living room to see Yuki playing with Soren with a wide smile on her face. It had been a while since he saw Yuki-nee this happy.

 

Inaho smiled fondly, not even noticing that he had, and moved closer till Yuki noticed him. Carrying Slaine, she stood, waiting for Inaho to sit down before handing Slaine to him. Recalling the instructions he looked up earlier, he brought the bottle towards Slaine’s mouth and began feeding him.

 

Midway, the doorbell rang. Inaho glanced up, and then back to the baby. Yuki ran to get the door. Inaho ignored the conversation– Yuki’s surprised greeting, an indistinct reply, and so on– until it moved into the living room. 

 

In came a certain redhead whom he hadn’t seen in months. She looked over at him, down to the baby and bottle in his arms, and raised an eyebrow. 

 

“Is General Kaizuka a babysitter now?”

  
Inaho stared at her, and went back to feeding Soren. “It isn’t babysitting if the child is yours. And hello, Rayet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steps to naming a baby  
> Step 1: Don't name it squishy  
> Inaho stares  
> "I failed step 1 . What do I do now Yuki nee"
> 
>  
> 
> Here is chapter two at last! The authors had to battle mutually incompatible schedules (and on one end, the competing calls of several other fics) to bring it to you. Hope you enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Everything will become clear soon in the next chapter hehe. Stay tuned !
> 
> Ambyr and I have quite a bit planned for this little story heh
> 
> Ambyrfire: this was some random cracky thing then look what happened


End file.
